Marilyn Ruth DeVries

Marilyn R. DeVries of Cary, N.C. and formerly of Emerald Isle, N.C. passed from this life on Thursday, January 27, 2022. She is survived by her son Don and wife Trisha DeVries, daughter Valerie and husband Scott Cole, son Kevin and wife Julie DeVries and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, David and Hannah DeVries, daughters Makenna, Kaelyn, Hadley and son Owen; Ben DeVries; Joshua and Morgan Cole and sons Ryder and Jack; Kyle and Lauren Olding and daughter Saylor; Kaitlyn and Rob Sottile; Caroline DeVries; and Joe DeVries. She is preceded in death by her parents, Stanley and Ruth Wenal and brother Harold (Happy) and sister Virginia (Ginny).

Marilyn was born and raised on a small farm in New Jersey. With a constant struggle for subsistence during the Great Depression, she grew up determined to work hard, be true to family, live joyfully and waste nothing. An insatiable love for people, she always interacted with a smile, rosy cheeks, and a ready laugh. She worked her way through Trenton State Teacher’s College, hiked the Swiss Alps as an exchange student, was crowned “Miss” this and that, and landed on the covers of magazines.

She married her college sweetheart and first husband, Air Force Lieutenant and pilot Don Duncan, in 1957. Sadly, within three months of their wedding and move to the Northwest, Don died in a plane crash. By then, Marilyn was pregnant with her first child. She moved back to New Jersey to be with family to grieve, care for her newborn son, and secure a job teaching school. Just over two years later, she married the second love of her life, Bob DeVries, with whom she built a long and wonderful life in the southeast (Richmond, Va., Raleigh and Emerald Isle, N.C.) until he passed just a few years ago.

With her education degree, Marilyn taught nearly every grade from Preschool to 12th grade. She founded and taught at a Preschool at her local church for many years. For decades, she taught a Bible class for young people at an annual Christian Conference. She participated in and lead numerous Bible Studies and Prayer Groups. She excelled in painting, quilting, sewing, and all sorts of arts and crafts. Later in life, she and her husband, Bob, mastered the craft of wildlife wood carvings, blessing many with gifts of their handiwork. In each of these contexts and many others, she impacted and blessed all she knew and loved.

Throughout her life, Marilyn became the embodiment of one writer’s principle – “Be ‘hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise,’ and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime – repeat them years after you have forgotten them.” If you were around her for even a short while, you will understand why we say this, as you will have been the recipient of her telling you how wonderful you were in some particular way. And she meant it. Her reservoir was never emptied of love and praise for others.

While she was in this final battle in the hospital, the outpouring of calls, FaceTimes, voicemails, text messages, videos and prayers she received was extraordinary. Her circles of friends were vast, in Emerald Isle, Morehead City, Richmond, Raleigh, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, California, even Brazil.

Given the current environment, we have decided to limit her services to a small private family gathering.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to her niece and husband, Rick & Kim Parker, missionaries to unreached people groups along the Amazon region. Their mission is called the “Manaus River Brazil Project”. You can make an online donation or send a check. To make an online donation, use the following link: https://give.wol.org/03608C . To donate with a check, make checks payable to “Word of Life Fellowship”. **Please add on your Memo line: “Rick Parker, Jr., Manaus River Project.”** Send checks to Word of Life Fellowship, P.O. Box 600, Schroon Lake, NY, 12870.

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